Tag Archives: meat

Live Mycobacterium avium subspecies paratuberculosis (MAP) has been cultured from retail milk purchased from stores in California, Minnesota and Wisconsin.

This means that American consumers are being exposed to live bacteria that are known to cause Inflammatory Bowel Disease (Johne’s Disease) in a wide range of animals, including dairy and beef cattle, and is suspected of being a cause of human Crohn’s Disease.

The UK government today adopted a comprehensive strategy to prevent human exposure to the bacterium Mycobacterium avium subspecies paratuberculosis (MAP). MAP is believed by a growing number of scientists to be a cause of Crohn’s Disease, a lifelong, debiliating and incurable bowel disease suffered mainly by the young.

The Advisory Committee on the Microbiological Safety of Food (ACMSF), which advises the UK Government Food Standards Agency, today approved a comprehensive program of measures aimed at eliminating MAP from retail milk, as purchased by consumers. Previous research commissioned by the ACMSF showed that live MAP could be cultured from approximately 2% of retail milk on sale in the United Kingdom.

The strategy adopted by the ACMSF shows that the UK Government is taking the issue of MAP and Crohn’s Disease extremely seriously. As the ACMSF says in its strategy document: “…. the Agency has put to one side the question of whether or not there is a link between MAP and Crohn’s Disease. The Agency believes that precautionary action to reduce human exposure to MAP should start now and should not be dependent on waiting for the link to be proven.”

When I attended the U.S. Animal Health Association meeting in Minnesota, October 1998, there was a lecture on the legal perspectives in the paratuberculosis/Crohn’s situation.

The most important point made for sellers of cattle was that if they make a statement “This cow does not have Johne’s disease”, then they are legally liable if the cow does actually turn out to have JD, a strongly possible occurrence due to the inaccuracy of current testing methods for JD. The only statement they can make is that “This cow has tested negative for Johne’s disease, by methods X, Y, and Z”.